OSG Incentivizes Over-Achievement


The Incentives and Compensation Plan Empowers the Sales Force to Be in Charge of Their Financial Destiny


At OSG, decisions are based on data – data that is available to those who need it. In real time. And that includes the commercial team.


In the past, says Dennis Dube, senior vice president of revenue operations at OSG, sales future earnings were forecast using an Excel spreadsheet. It worked, but it was clunky.


Now, the software the company uses “gives our salespeople real-time intelligence,” Dube says. “When they close a deal, they can hop right over and look inside the systems and get real-time insight on what they are earning and what they could be earning and how it is calculated. It is not a secret.” Dube joined OSG in August 2020. He had worked with OSG chief commercial officer Ken Powell at a previous position. (Dube says, if Powell called him and offered him a job that required him to be digging in dirt outdoors under the Arizona sun in the height of summer, he’d ask, “When should I be there?” – because he sees Powell as a strategic leader who makes it his mission to lift other people up. “The guy works harder than anyone else I have ever been around.”) Since joining OSG, Dube has overhauled the firm’s incentives and compensation with an ultimate mission to incentivize over-achievement.


It was a big undertaking. “A cornucopia of plans,” is how Dube describes the former collection. In late 2020


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DENNIS DUBE


SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF REVENUE OPERATIONS


and during 2021, he and his team worked to simplify. There are now fewer plans – each aligning with sales benchmarks. While there may be some differences, there’s one similarity: Plans have uncapped earnings. Yes, there’s a base salary. On top of that, top performers can earn as much as they can earn,


thanks to a tied incentive structure.


“We want to recognize top performers for delivering outcomes that align with our business strategies,” Dube says.


“We overpay for the top performers because we do not want to lose our top performers,” adds Louis LaNeve, senior vice president of sales.


OSG’s shift from a print-and-mail invoice company to a SaaS platform gives the sales force more opportunity to earn more because the firm is growing and pivoting at such a rapid clip. Internal reception Dube has received suggests this is the best compensation OSG has had in years.


“The feedback has been incredibly positive, both anecdotally and quantitatively. We had the best sales year in the history of the company,” he says. The basis of the plan, Dube says, “is really about rewarding work. We think about rewarding in terms of the work you are doing and the money you are earning and the professional growth you are experiencing.” When it comes to incentives, in addition to compensation, the company steers away from cash. That money comes in with the paycheck, Dube says, and then gets spent on groceries and other everyday expenses. Incentives that are experiences have a different feel to them. Salespeople who earn them get to choose what’s of interest – be it a trip, a drone, or a shopping spree with Powell.


Since joining OSG, Dube referred six new hires to the firm, two of whom were salespeople and one of whom reached the Winners’ Circle level in 2021. “With my group in particular, the reason we exist is to serve sales and to help salespeople be wildly successful.”


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